New School Ends Occupy Occupation (Without Arrests)

As of Friday, the Occupy movement was no longer occupying any space at the New School. For a week prior, Occupy supporters from the New School and other colleges were protesting (and sometimes sleeping) in a study center at one New School facility. University officials said that the landlord to the building (which is not owned by the New School) was concerned about the students sleeping there, and that New York City Fire Department officials said that the occupation was producing a fire hazard. Blogs also started to detail the spraying of graffiti in the study center (which in what may be an irony was created in response to the demands of a student protest a year ago about inadequate study space). The New School then told the Occupy movement supporters that they had to leave the study center, but that they could occupy an art gallery of the New School, and could stay there 24 hours a day through the end of the semester -- provided that only students were admitted to the gallery (although the students need not be New School students) and that people not sleep there. By Friday, the study center was empty; workers are cleaning and painting it so it can open on Monday. The initial move to the art gallery did not go according to the New School's plans, as some protesters slept there and others used the wall for graffiti. So the protesters were asked to leave and the New School is cleaning and repainting and planning to turn the gallery over to the Occupy protesters on Monday, provided that the terms are followed.

The movement, now dispersed, has not issued any statements on its departure from the protest spaces. New School officials said that everyone eventually left without police intervention or arrests. A statement on the blog kept during the occupation of the study center said that those there were concerned that "the pigs of the NYPD are preparing to attack our space," and also criticized the New School. "New School administration, despite their mealy-mouthed lip service to the movement, has decided to side with the banks, landlords, millionaire university trustees, and whining conservative students who are all clamoring for this break in the miserable daily routine to end," the blog post said.